October 5, 1908 - Sox pitcher "Big" Ed Walsh wins his 40th game of the season, beating Detroit 6 - 1. Itís a team record that will never be broken.

October 5, 1983 - Cy Young Award winner LaMarr Hoyt pitches a brilliant complete game, six hitter in beating the Orioles 2 - 1 in Game #1 of the A.L.C.S. Itís the first time since divisional playoffs started in 1969 that Baltimore ever lost the first game of a post season series. It would be the high water mark for the Sox in the next week.

October 5, 1993 - Game #1 of the A.L.C.S. is a complete unmitigated disaster both on and off the field for the Sox. On the field, Toronto rips the Sox 7 - 3 but by the middle of the game, not one fan cares. Michael Jordan who threw out the ceremonial first pitch confirms reports that he is holding a press conference the next morning to announce his retirement from the Bulls. Fans at the game and around the city are in shock. Adding insult to injury, future Hall Of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk and Chicago native and former Sox pitcher Donn Pall are turned away by security guards when they attempt to wish the team "good luck" in the locker room before the game started. The White Sox claim the rules were set by Major League Baseball but no fan or media member is fooled by that comment. Most media members feel Fisk was turned away on explicit orders from Jerry Reinsdorf. Itís an insult Fisk never forgets. Reinsdorf then takes an unprecedented step of apologizing to the team in the clubhouse before the start of Game #2 saying he had no wish to take away their spotlight because of the Jordan situation. (Donn Pall describes what happened outside the locker room in his interview with White Sox Interactive.)

October 5, 1993 - Game #1 of the A.L.C.S. is a complete unmitigated disaster both on and off the field for the Sox. On the field, Toronto rips the Sox 7 - 3 but by the middle of the game, not one fan cares. Michael Jordan who threw out the ceremonial first pitch confirms reports that he is holding a press conference the next morning to announce his retirement from the Bulls. Fans at the game and around the city are in shock. Lip

One of the worst days in Chicago sports history. And the Sox fell to 0-2 in the playoffs less than 24 hours after MJ's opening pitch. Ugh

BRDSR

10-04-2007, 02:49 PM

October 5, 1908 - Sox pitcher "Big" Ed Walsh wins his 40th game of the season, beating Detroit 6 - 1. Itís a team record that will never be broken...

...That is, until just days less than a century later when Mark Buerhle won his 41st game of the season. The Sox had gone to a four-man rotation and Buerhle received the W in every single one of his starts. Garland lost two with a couple no decisions, Javy lost three with a couple no decisions, and the Sox retained Contreras who won three games and had an 14.00 ERA after his rumored 48th birthday. The Sox went 117-45, went to a three-man rotation for the playoffs, and won the World Series in only 11 games total.

Also, I was 8 years old during the 1993 season and had just moved to Chicago about a year earlier. It was the year that turned me into a White Sox fan. I remember being devastated by the way those playoffs turned out, and I remember Michael Jordan retiring, but I don't remember the two events coinciding the way they did. Nor do I remember the Fisk incident at the time, but I was too young to know the history anyway. Weird how memories work.

Britt Burns

10-04-2007, 05:01 PM

October 5, 1983 - Cy Young Award winner LaMarr Hoyt pitches a brilliant complete game, six hitter in beating the Orioles 2 - 1 in Game #1 of the A.L.C.S. Itís the first time since divisional playoffs started in 1969 that Baltimore ever lost the first game of a post season series. It would be the high water mark for the Sox in the next week.

Lip

By that point in the season Hoyt was unhittable. I know after 24 years I should let this go, but if not for Dybber's boneheaded running and Tito ****ing Landrum in Game 4, LaMarr would have pitched Game 5 (at home, I believe)...sigh...

TheCommander

10-04-2007, 05:08 PM

By that point in the season Hoyt was unhittable. I know after 24 years I should let this go, but if not for Dybber's boneheaded running and Tito ****ing Landrum in Game 4, LaMarr would have pitched Game 5 (at home, I believe)...sigh...